The worship true once more renew that in those walls awoke

With thoughts of balm, across whose calm your

chimes' full chorus broke;

Again each word of all once heard that blessed the spirit there

Now bid me hear, with inward ear, till conquered be despair,

And memories throng to make me strong, and help the heart to burn

With ardor brave that once ye gave- thus, thus, oh, let me turn!

And, as there shone, through darkness lone, the clock face golden bright,

Where, overhead, the tower shed afar its beaconlight,

So chime God's peace when conflicts cease in music for the soul,

With "kindly light" to lead aright towards the spirit's goal! Philadelphia.

URSULA TANNENFORST.

PROF. SWING'S ADDRESS AT THE FUNERAL OF EMMA ABBOTT.*

English statesmen have mentioned with pride that the morning drum-beat of the English soldiers is heard around the world. Such a reveille does indeed indicate the

spread of a great language and a great power, but it must be thought only a forerunner of that better day when the world shall be girdled with song.

Song stands for so much that is best in human nature that the soul of man is said

at last to enter heaven with song. Happy are those toilers or travelers deemed who sing as they work or journey. Jean Paul Richter said a good song seemed to his heart to be the "evening hymn of this life and the morning hymn of the life to come." Thus all music binds the two worlds together. It bridges the gulf between time and eternity, and makes the abyss less terrible to those who must cross over. Not only Mozart, but millions of mortals have passed upward amid joyful song.

All music is one art, just as all streams and oceans are one water, and as all above us is one sky. The artists who created the opera made also a better hymn for the sanctuary, and the holy religion of the centuries has been present to deepen the meaning of the tones which were to be poured forth from amid the scenery of the stage. The opera and the church have helped each other to sweeter tones. It requires all of human sentiment to create a great art. *Central Music Hall, Chicago, Friday, January 9.

Laughter and tears must combine,—the dancing child, the anxious patriot, the dying mortal must meet in the temple of the painter, the sculptor, the musician. That song, "The Last Rose of Summer," belongs in part to religion, because the

leaves of those scattered blossoms fall on the grave of man.

To the musical compositions of Mendelssohn called "Songs without Words," the heart may add what words are most precious in the passing hour; for all classic music is like the flowers of the field,-a decoration of a cabin or a palace, a wreath for the grave or the cradle.

Emma Abbott was born into this high art. Her father was a teacher of music. Her home was full of song. It is a great destiny for a woman to be born into a mission of music. She holds a sway which is as wide as it is benevolent. Not all persons desire to hear the orator when he speaks; not all can follow his theme or his argument. To many the painter's canvas is dull, and the sculptor's statue fine, but dead; but, when music speaks, the human heart listens, be it young or old, rich or poor, sad or happy.

Not only has this art the widest sweep, but it surpasses in power the sister arts. Music can draw tears which painter and sculptor and architect are powerless to start. Music is most full of inspirations, longings, visions, spirituality, ambition, and hope. It is democratic and generous; for it offers its riches to all, and to all in almost equal shares. The king and the humblest subject are equal heirs. It was a goodness of God that permitted this child to carry this art in her bosom to and fro in the world, while many a season came and went.

Music will not make virtue and morals, but it will aid them to come and to expand. No learning, no culture, no art, will absolutely make noble all who touch either or all. Nature has no absolute certainties about the soul; but this we know: that many millions of persons are made better by the knowledge, the culture, the art, of our race. Music is one of those mountains on which a pure light falls. It helps the good mind by becoming to it a language better than that of words. After words have all failed, this new eloquence springs up and carries man onward.

As prose asks poetry

to help it reach a higher power, so poetry asks music to become its Elijah chariot.

It is with tears of regret and admiration that we consign this singer to the dust. She brought melodies to the whole people, and thus made melody spring up in the homes of the land. A pure opera presided over by a genius in the art and by a being high and beautiful in her life, does not end when the curtain falls; but the sounds go home with the scattering throng, and the sentiments awakened in one evening spread over many a subsequent year. The patriotic hymns of our country and the hymns of religion redouble their beauty when a great voice has passed by, for all art is one; and as the eloquent Massillon and Pitt and Webster make all speech reach more eloquence, so the gifted children of song make the eight notes rise to a new power in all our hearts. One rich hour will inspire a lifetime.

Emma Abbott died too soon; but she abates grief by having lived beautifully. Her destiny was not that of music only, but it was that of a wide and rich womanhood. She was a sister to the womanhood joined to her in her operatic company. The taskmaster was also the friend. Her company journeyed in a helpful friendship. Her life was sincere, unassuming, beautifully human, and as religious as are most of the Christian lives. From her childhood to her last day in our world her life was all of one color. It underwent no rude or sad changes. Emma Abbott, the child, Emma Abbott, the girl flushed with her first success, and Emma Abbott, dying in the far West, were one and the same tint of mind and heart. Her music, her friendships, her justice, her religion, all meet now to make for her friends a deeper sorrow, but a richer memory.

DID JOHN WESLEY BECOME A
UNIVERSALIST?

We republish the following from the Truth-seeker (Leicester, England) of April, 1886. It is of particular interest now, as we are approaching the centenary of the death of the founder of Methodism, which will be, and ought to be, widely celebrated.

A tract has just been republished which suggests the question, "Did John Wesley become a Universalist ?" The tract was

originally published by Wesley, who translated it from the French of Bonnet, the naturalist, and called it "one of the most sensible tracts I ever read." The following

passage from it is worth pondering :—

"There is among men here on earth an almost infinite diversity of gifts, talents, humanity rises by innumerable steps from knowledge, inclinatious, etc. The scale of the brute man to the thinking man. This progression will continue no doubt in the life to come, and will preserve the same essential relations; in other words, the progand virtue will determine the point from ress which we shall here make in knowledge whence we shall begin our progress in the other life, or the place we shall there occupy.

...

There will therefore be a perpetual advance of all the individuals of humanity toward greater perfection or greater happiness; for one degree of acquired perfection will lead of itself to another degree. And because the distance between created beings and the Uncreated Being, between finite and Infinite, is infinite, they will tend continually toward supreme perfection, without ever arriving at it."

Upon this, it has been remarked:

which this doctrine is the burden, com"John Wesley publishes the treatise of mends it as 'sensible,' and adds no protest, as he does in the case of other opinions of his author. This was in his old age, four dant evidence that Wesley became more and years before his death.... There is abunmore liberal as he advanced in years, that he modified and sometimes abandoned his former sentiments. He acknowledged this, in 1768, in a letter to Rev. Dr. Rutherforth. 'If all my sentiments,' he says, 'were compared together from the year 1725 to 1768, there would be truth in the charge [of maintaining contradictions]; for, during the latter part of this period, I have relinquished several of my former sentiments.' . . . Every new fact which comes before us concerning the life and writings of that remarkable and epoch-making man impresses one more and more with the unique spectacle Wesley presents to the world. With an undying love for the souls of men, with quenchless zeal for their salvation, braving all dangers and daunted by no persecutious, he held broad and tolerant views, protested once and again against the narrow preaching of his workers, pleaded for the acceptance with God of deists and heathen, praised the piety of Unitarians, published a Universalist tract of a Swiss naturalist, and constantly enlarged his thought to meet the growing light of truth. In all Christian history, he is perhaps the most eminent example of zeal and charity, of earnestness and liberality. Let

NEW AFRICA.

The following is an abstract of a sermon recently preached by Rev. Charles R. Weld of Baltimore, on a subject which is now at tracting the attention of the world::

An eminent philosopher has said, “It is a great thing to live at all." Then how much greater to live when a new world is being added to the problems of life! Such a time was the year 1492, when America was discovered; and such, again, is our own time, when the veil is taken from the long-hidden heart of Africa. But there is little analogy in the discovery of the world of Columbus and that of Mungo Park, Livingstone, and Stanley; for we are living upon an accident. The ships that reached our shores left Europe to seek the treasures of the Indies, and found the New World barred their way. The news of that discovery was received with incredulity in the Old World, and it was one hundred and twenty years before the fact had any effect on the mind and actions of Europe.

What we call the New World to-dayAfrica-was known to the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. Even Herodotus, 465 B.C., had heard of the pygmies who were rediscovered two years ago. Then, too, think how quickly discoveries become known now. Not a year has passed since the arrival of the men at the coast, and already the news has penetrated to the isles of the sea.

Look for a moment at this vast land. Larger than any continent except Asia, it contains the State of New York two hundred and thirty-four times, having an area of 11,000,000 square miles.

The cause of Africa's strange isolation is very simple: all her rivers are barred at the entrance. Africa is divided into two great sections, the northern lowlands and the southern great table-land. The western coast is lower than the eastern; and there are few traces of volcanic action, it being the most solid part of the globe. Instead of a "Dark Continent," a term so familiar, it is really the lightest and the sunniest. Its interior is filled with vast waterways and seas; its flora and fauna are the richest in the world; its inhabitants are most varied in mental and physical endowments, and black is by no means their prominent color. Its population is variously estimated: it may be 200,000,000. Its coast line is 16,000 miles, and portions of its territory

The new era in geographical discovery, the fifteenth century, left the greater part of Africa still unexplored, though circumnavigated by the Portuguese. In 1788, an association was formed in London to explore inner Africa; but in the last sixty years more than in the centuries before has the heart of that vast continent been made known. An American statesman has recently said that by the journeys of three men the world's progress has been signally advanced,-first, by those of Alexander the Great; second, by those of Columbus; third, by those of Mungo Park, 1795-1805. The African continent was first crossed in 1806. From that time, the great names of Livingstone, Moffat, Burton, Speke, Grant, Schweinfurth, and Baker are connected with this vast unknown interior. In 1871, Stanley found Livingstone and the White Nile and Upper Nile and the great lakes; and, when he fought his way down the mighty river to the sea, he not only revealed the length of the Congo, but founded that Free State, and added fifty millions of people to the known population of the world.

As we see the interior of Africa revealed, and its peoples brought into contact with civilized nations, it is for us to realize the mighty problems of a new world. Shall we be as blind as they of 1492? How little did they realize that a new leaf of the historic page had been turned; that the foundations of a new government had been laid which was to shake the thrones of Europe; that upon this accidental soil upon which we live, the government of the people, for the people, and by the people was to be so demonstrated; that the death-knell of absolutism for the globe had been sounded!

Can we realize that with the opening of Africa to civilization the sunniest land and the most fertile has been added to the economies of humanity's life? that with the training and experience of the last four hundred years we are to take and hold Africa for humanity and God? It is a menace to that new world when from one of our ports a vessel departs laden with New England rum and guns, undoing the very work of the missionaries it carries. Every person who returns from Africa's interior says the same thing: "Exclude whiskey and gun-powder, and, though the banks of these great rivers are lined with savages who clamor for human flesh, an earthly paradise is possible." The responsibility for Africa's future rests on Germany, France, England, and America.

We can make the land repeat the world's ancient tale of horrors, or a new world where the most susceptible race on earth can be led by short ways to order, peace, civilization, and Christianity.

The new Africa beyond the sea reminds us that we have an Africa in our midst. In 1620, a Dutch ship landed at Jamestown, Va., a cargo of negroes. Between 1680 and 1786, 2,000,000 were imported. We can recall the horrors of the middle passage,bow out of every 100 negroes only 50 lived for unrequited toil. The black shadow on our own New World was African slavery. It was the curse of the white race. It was opposed by the founders of our government, Washington and Jefferson and Adams. It has cost us the blood of our best, and uncounted treasure. Think what qualities this enslaved race possessed when they remained quietly upon the plantations to care for the women and children, while their masters fought to rivet their chains! There is nothing in the annals of humanity like this kindliness and self-restraint of these the slaves of the republic. By the force of arms not theirs, they were made citizens. Souls have no color: the tint of the skin has nothing to do with the principles of intrinsic manhood and womanhood. If ever a race won-not by war, but by their own qualities and capacities-citizenship, it is the black race in America. They are children of the one great Father of us all they are here, and here to stay; and possibly, in the great reserves of God, Africa has been set apart to demonstrate a still mightier truth, that no external feature, no curl of the hair or tint of the skin, has part or place in that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, which shall abide until God comes to claim his own.

THE NEW UNIVERSITY OF

CHICAGO.

We live in a time which will be noted in

the history of our country for the number of great universities that it is witnessing the foundation of. Among those that have been thus far established or projected none are more worthy of attention than that

which is soon to come into being in the city of Chicago. The Chicago papers have given extended accounts of the plans for its organization, so far as they have been perfected. We take the following condensed but very clear account from the Christian Union:

The plans for the new university, which will be richly endowed by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, have been drawn up by Prof. W. R. Harper, of Yale, and submitted to between fifty and sixty of the most prominent educators in the country, including professors at Yale, Harvard, Columbia,

Your committee herewith submit to you a report upon four questions; namely, (1) the university, (2) the organization of the university, (3) general regulations for the administration of the university, (4) the points of advantage attending the plan proposed. The work of the university will be arranged under three general divisions; namely, the university proper, the university extension work, and the university publication work.

Of

The university proper will include: (1) Academies. The first academy of the university will be established, in accordance with the terms of the gift of J. D. Rockefeller, at Morgan Park. Others will be organized as rapidly as favorable opportunities are presented. (2) Colleges. these there will be organized the college of liberal arts, the college of science, the college of literature, the college of practical arts, affiliated colleges, the graduate school, the divinity school; and as soon as the funds will permit there will be established the law school, the medical school, the school of engineering, the school of pedagogy, the school of fine arts, and the school of music.

The university extension will include (1) regular courses of lectures, (2) evening courses in college and university subjects, (3) correspondence courses in college and university subjects, (4) special courses in a scientific study of the Bible, (5) library extension.

After a detailed explanation as to the

way the institution is to be governed, Prof.

Harper enumerated the following points that it is expected to bring about:

Concentration on the part of the students; permit the admission of students to the university at several times in the year; provide for loss of time of students who become sick; make it possible for summer months to be employed; provide against the present method of passing all men, the good and the poor alike, through the same course; raise the standard of work; permit men to be absent from the university during portions of the year; mitigate the evil of the present method of examinations; furnish greater stimulus and incentive; make it

possible for students to take practical subjects, as book-keeping, stenography, etc.; secure a greater degree of intimacy between instructors and students; provide against instructors teaching too many subjects at the same time; make it possible to avoid the necessity of retaining instructors in the institution when they have shown themselves unfit; make it possible for the university to use the best men of other institutions; provide for the use of the university during the entire year; secure to the institution advantages which accrue from the adoption of the correspondence system as an organic part of the university; encourage an independent feeling on the part of all who share the advantages of the university; allow large freedom in the choice of subjects; place the work of the university on a level with that of any institution on the continent; provide for the administration of the institution in accordance with a truly American and truly university spirit.

LET US CRUCIFY OURSELVES TO THE PEN.

The recent death of the wise and cultured Dean of St. Paul's has robbed the English Established Church of probably the ablest of all the divines who survived Lightfoot and Liddon. Three such losses, following one another so rapidly, have seldom befallen the religious life of any country. The work of Dean Church, though the least obvious, had not been the least efficient of the three.

It had been largely a work of journalism. By his death there passed away the last survivor of the men who set on foot the Guardian newspaper. It is but forty years since a memorable Sunday afternoon, when a knot of young men gathered together in a barrister's chambers in Lincoln's Inn, to arrange that enterprise. The object they had in view was "to reform the Church of England, and make her machinery practical"; and they knew that it was only by journalism that this could be effectively done. Time has gone on. One of these young men has lived to become the greatest historian of his generation; another, to wear the ermine of Lord Chief Justice of England; a third, to sit on the Chancellor's woolsack; and a fourth, the late dean, to refuse the archbishopric of Canterbury. But even their own great personal successes are less great than the success of the ecclesiastical movement they initiated. Guardian stands at the head of all the religious papers of the world in point of literary merit and of public influence; and the effect which it has produced in recasting the organization and reinspiring the vitality of the Established Church is one which can

The

scarcely be overrated. Then Anglicanism seemed sunk in languor, unable to provide for the needs of the colonies or even to keep pace with the increase of the home population. To-day the vigor of her life is felt all over the English-speaking world. Yes, it is only by pen and press that our overgrown modern world can be effectually reached and moved. All the magic of the eye and the voice are impotent in comparison with the wide-sown written sheet. Lacordaire realized this when he organized his band of friends for the heroic effort to reconcile Catholicism with philosophy and progress, for he gave them the watchword, "Let us crucify ourselves to the pen."

The above, from the London Christian Life, is a word which we would commend to the young men of America to whom have come the new light and hope and inspiration of the Liberal Christian faith. Every year the periodical press becomes a greater power in the land. Every year it gives a readier welcome to our forward-looking thought. Let us take advantage, more generally than at present we do, of this important and far-reaching means for the dissemination of our broader and more reasonable views of religion.

First of all, our own liberal periodicals, Unitarian and Universalist and others, should be kept constantly filled with the best thinking and the best fruits of scholarship of our best men and women, old and young. Then there are certain liberal orthodox periodicals that gladly welcome an important part of our thought, even if not all. Beyond these there is the whole secular press of the land, with its dailies, weeklies, and monthlies, without number, through which an avenue for our ideas can be found to millions of minds.

We appeal especially to our young men, ministers and laymen, to plan their lives with a constant view to taking advantage of these means for vastly increasing the influence and scope of their life-work. Never was there a time when there was more need than now for friends of religious progress, in the New World as well as in the Old, to adopt Lacordaire's motto,-Let us crucify ourselves to the pen.

"Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life."